by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 14, 2011
Three heavy hitters have teamed up on Broadway to give audiences an evening of kinship wrapped in contention with Relatively Speaking: three one-act comedies which cover various forms of familial remedy, rivalry and racket. Four-time Oscar winner Ethan Coen, two-time Oscar nominee Elaine May and multiple award winner Woody Allen each offer up their views on the subject, resulting in short plays which each bear the distinct mark of their unique brand of writing; all delivered under the deft direction of John Turturro.
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by Anne Jordanova on September 30, 2010
For those of us who were there last night, either as fans of Green Day, Broadway, or their rock opera American Idiot- it was a legendary moment. Billie Joe Armstrong- lead singer of Green Day, main lyricist, and guitarist of the band for the past 20 years made his Broadway debut appropriately as the character ‘St. Jimmy’ last night, September 28th at the St. James Theater. (Where he runs through a limited 7 day engagement).
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on June 3, 2009
I’m here to set the record straight. I’ve spent years thinking that Phylicia Rashad‘s career was based on giving life to characters that sprung forth from Bill Cosby‘s head, the straight (wo)man standing patiently by as William Henry Cosby, Jr. Ed.D. gave in to one of his patented Cosby-eque tirades. After all, she played his wife, lawyer Claire Huxtable, for eight seasons on The Cosby Show, then signed on for the gig again, playing Ruth Lucas on Cosby. She took Claire Huxtable on the road and over to A Different World to visit her “daughter” when ratings required her to do so, and she had no issue with voicing the mother of Little Bill, Cosby’s saccharine animation for the 3-and-under set. She’d even appeared in an episode of The Cosby Mysteries. (Ever hear of it? Me neither). Almost more stereotyped than Henry (who?) “The Fonz” (oh …) Winkler, she even Claire Huxtable’d her way through those Jenny Craig commercials. I know she’s had other roles, but her main body of work remained so uninteresting to me that I never bothered to catch her in A Raisin In The Sun or anything else, quite frankly. So it wasn’t really on my radar that she won a Tony … or even that she was up for one.
And then I spent a night at August:Osage County. Never, and I mean EVER, have I ever done anyone a greater disservice. Phylicia, if you’re out there, I apologize. I more than apologize, I owe you a steak dinner. I owe all the Huxtables (even you, Grown Up Rudy) a steak dinner. Because Phylicia Rashad, you left me ashamed at my small-mindedness, humbled by your skill and in awe of your complete transformation. You really ARE a great actress.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 17, 2008
You know you’re at a David Mamet play when, before the show even starts, you’re asked to turn off your fucking cell phones.
While the play was first produced in the seventies, the subject matter is hardly dated; nothing gives away the time period (except for John Leguizamo’s crazy-patterned shirt — which could easily be more of a nod toward his character’s thrift-store-shopping-habits than the decade); even in the program “The Time” is listed only as “One Friday”.
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